Director of IT Cloud Operations

Zscaler•San Jose, CA

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

About Zscaler Zscaler is a pioneer and global leader in zero trust security. The world’s largest businesses, critical infrastructure organizations, and government agencies rely on Zscaler to secure users, branches, applications, data & devices, and to accelerate digital transformation initiatives. Distributed across more than 160 data centers globally, the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform combined with advanced AI combats billions of cyber threats and policy violations every day and unlocks productivity gains for modern enterprises by reducing costs and complexity. Here, impact in your role matters more than title and trust is built on results. We believe in transparency and value constructive, honest debate —we’re focused on getting to the best ideas, faster. We build high-performing teams that can make an impact quickly and with high quality. To do this, we are building a culture of execution centered on customer obsession, collaboration, ownership and accountability. We champion an “AI Forward, People First” philosophy to help us accelerate and innovate, empowering our people to embrace their potential. If you’re driven by purpose, thrive on solving complex challenges and want to make a positive difference on a global scale, we invite you to bring your talents to Zscaler to help shape the future of cybersecurity. Role We are looking for a Director of IT Cloud Operations to join our team. This role is hybrid and based in our San Jose, CA office three days a week, and reports to the Sr. Director, IT Infrastructure within the IT Operations department. You will lead and scale our global Cloud Operations and DevOps teams, owning operational excellence, security, compliance, and cost management across Zscaler’s multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP). In this high-impact position, you will blend operational leadership with strategic governance, partnering closely with the CISO organization to embed Zero Trust principles into every layer of our IT cloud architecture. What you’ll do (Role Expectations) Lead and scale a global IT Cloud Operations team managing multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), establishing standardized SLAs, KPIs, and governance for identity management and cloud lifecycles Oversee IT Federal Cloud Operations to ensure strict adherence to FedRAMP and government security standards, partnering with Security and Legal teams to automate compliance and support audits Drive the strategic roadmap for DevOps and Platform Engineering, utilizing Kubernetes, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and GitOps to automate application onboarding within a Zero Trust framework Collaborate with CISO and CPO organizations to embed Zero Trust principles and robust policy enforcement into cloud architectures, balancing rigorous security standards with engineering innovation Champion reliability and cost-efficiency by implementing observability frameworks, incident management best practices, and executive-level FinOps reporting for budget forecasting and optimization Who You Are (Success Profile) You thrive in ambiguity. You're comfortable building the path as you walk it. You thrive in a dynamic environment, seeing ambiguity not as a hindrance, but as the raw material to build something meaningful. You act like an owner. Your passion for the mission fuels your bias for action. You operate with integrity because you genuinely care about the outcome. You adapt to what’s needed, navigating seamlessly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution. You are a problem-solver. You seek out challenges because you are energized by finding solutions, knowing that solving the hard problems delivers the biggest impact. You are customer-obsessed. You build deep empathy for the customer—both internal and external—and anchor your decisions in solving their real-world problems. You champion their needs from start to finish, knowing their success is our success. You operate with urgency. You understand that in a high-growth environment, speed and quality are not mutually exclusive. You have a relentless focus on execution and a bias for action, delivering high-impact results quickly to win for the customer and the team.

Requirements

12+ years of IT experience with 7+ years leading cloud operations, DevOps, or platform engineering teams
Proven experience operating and governing AWS, Azure, and GCP at enterprise scale
Strong understanding of Zero Trust security models
Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, cloud IAM, security policy enforcement, and automation frameworks
Experience building and managing FinOps practices combined with exceptional leadership, communication, and executive-level stakeholder management skills

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a SaaS, cybersecurity, or Zero Trust-first company
Exposure to regulated cloud environments, such as FedRAMP or government cloud
Relevant Cloud, Kubernetes, or FinOps certifications

Responsibilities

Lead and scale a global IT Cloud Operations team managing multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), establishing standardized SLAs, KPIs, and governance for identity management and cloud lifecycles
Oversee IT Federal Cloud Operations to ensure strict adherence to FedRAMP and government security standards, partnering with Security and Legal teams to automate compliance and support audits
Drive the strategic roadmap for DevOps and Platform Engineering, utilizing Kubernetes, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and GitOps to automate application onboarding within a Zero Trust framework
Collaborate with CISO and CPO organizations to embed Zero Trust principles and robust policy enforcement into cloud architectures, balancing rigorous security standards with engineering innovation
Champion reliability and cost-efficiency by implementing observability frameworks, incident management best practices, and executive-level FinOps reporting for budget forecasting and optimization